


I Follow

by Res



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003), Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-01-16
Updated: 2002-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-20 23:03:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Res/pseuds/Res
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone wonders why Sam follows Frodo...perhaps these are Sam's thoughts. Set just after the Breaking of the Fellowship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Follow

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Small ones for the movie/first book
> 
> Author's Notes and Disclaimer: Sam and Frodo and all the others belong to JRR Tolkien, and he's amazing. I only borrowed them for a small moment, to see what Sam had to say about all this following business. I truly believe Sam is the REAL Hero...and that a true call to service is sacred.

**  
"I Follow"    
**

I see looks sometimes, Mr. Frodo, when I follow you. They wonder at my devotion, at my care of you. They see how I mind you first, how I turn for your comfort, your care before mine, how I stay with you, following you closely, never leaving you, and they wonder.

When Gandalf first made me promise, I didn't understand. "Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee, don't you lose him!" Leave you? LOSE you? I didn't understand what he meant. But I do now. I see how you pull back from the others; in fear, maybe, or wariness, suspicion, protecting the Ring. I see how you get lost in the Ring's call, forgetting all around you as you fight its command, its seduction, going deaf and blind to danger or aid. He told me to take care of you, Mr. Frodo, and I thought him mad - a crazy old man. Take care of you? You, a fine, strong young Hobbit of means...needing a caretaker? What nonsense! But now I see. I see how you shake under the burden, how your mind gets wrapped around the thoughts of the Ring, protecting it, destroying it, and how you forget about yourself. I saw it when he fell, how you screamed and cried at first, how you loved him and mourned him. But you didn't stop. All the rest of us, even the prince of Elves, and the prince of Men, all of us paused and mourned, in shock...but you did not. Aragorn had to remind us to move...to continue...that our quest was not yet finished. But you were already gone -- even in grief, you did not stop, you kept going.

And when danger comes, I see how you are its target first, and most, and worst. The Watcher could have grabbed any of us. Merry, Pip and I were all closer to the water. It grabbed you. Even with the rest of us hacking and slashing, stabbing and stinging, kicking and screaming, the Water Watcher grabbed you and knocked us all aside. And on the hilltop...I didn't see it then, when the wraiths on the hilltop passed us by, but I see it now. We were naught but brush in their way, and they tossed us aside as yesterday's crumbs, focused on you, on the Ring you bear. And in the mines...Merry and Pip together were more of a target for the troll...but it was you that got near crushed and impaled. It was you Boromir attacked, his great strength used against you when protection was what he promised. And still you bear the Ring and its Fate.

I see how it drives you and rides you. Your strong body grows thin, eyes dark with weariness, your hands shake with exhaustion, and still you continue. All the others, they see the RingBearer. The One who Bears the Ring...they protect him and follow him, making sure he is safe, making sure the RingBearer will complete the quest. But what about Mr. Frodo? No one else seems to see him...no one but me. And I see how tired you are, Mr. Frodo, I see how you quake with fright, how you worry about us all. They all watch the RingBearer, thinking -- will he make it, will he do the deed, can he finish the journey...they look to you to guide our path, saying, "Let the RingBearer choose", seeming to forget all that you said. "I will take it," you said, "I will take the Ring to Mordor", and that was all they heard, missing the rest...and you, Mr. Frodo, you worry about all this, and you worry about them. I see it in your eyes, how you fear, hear it in the catch of your breath when you wake late at night, feel it in the hesitant touch of your hand...you fear the journey, but, even more, you fear your companions. You fear to cost us what we gladly give, and it bears on you, weighing you down. You fear the Ring's work on us, its subtle voice weaving into our minds, as it did in Boromir's...you watch for the signs of a companion become enemy. You worry. What if you fail? Worse, what if you succeed, but in succeeding, you spend us all? And so you pull back. You stand alone, separating yourself from us, distancing yourself, that you can protect us from the evil you bear.

But if you protect us, and they protect the RingBearer...who protects Mr. Frodo?

I do.

First I promised, not knowing what it meant, but now I swear it. I won't lose you. I won't LEAVE you. Even if the Ring keeps you apart from me.

You are going to Mordor alone, Mr. Frodo. And I'm going with you. Because I've got it easy, Mr. Frodo; all I do is follow.

You lead.

End


End file.
